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Finals are behind the Cardinal now, and its back to baseball after an 11-day break. It was well-earned time off, though, as Stanford played its first 11 games in 13 days—and all but two were against Top 25 opposition. The Cardinal jumps right back into it with four straight games beginning with a three-game series with Kansas at Sunken Diamond and a Monday matinee at UC Davis.

Series History

All-time vs. Kansas: 12-3 (.800)

• First meeting in 2004 | Streak: Stanford, 2
• Last Series: L (2-4, 13 inn); W (5-4); W (1-0) at Sunken Diamond (March 7-9, 2014)
• Stanford took two of three in the last meeting between these programs.
• Kansas won the first game in 13 innings, John Hochstatter won Game 2 and Cal Quantrill pitched a complete game shutout to give the Cardinal a series victory.
• Prior to the 2014 series, the two programs previously met in Palo Alto in 2007 (Stanford swept the series). Stanford also swept the series in 2004 and 2005, but Kansas took two of three in 2006.
• All 15 games of the series have been played at Sunken Diamond.

Stanford Stats

• Five of Stanford’s seven wins have come against the Top 25, including two on the road.
• Stanford is No. 3 in the nation and leads the Pac-12 in fielding percentage (.982)
• The Cardinal has the fewest errors (5) of any team in the nation with 10+ games played.
• Stanford is second in the Pac-12 in ERA (2.31), runs allowed (32), opposing batting average (.193), hits allowed (74), and walks (32), and allowed the fewest home runs (2).
• Prior to dropping the final two games of the Vanderbilt series, Stanford outscored its opponents 24-2, and outhit them, 37-13, in a three-game winning streak.
• Stanford has held its opponent to two or fewer runs in all seven wins.
• The Cardinal is 6-0 this year when scoring first (1-5 when opponent scores first).

Stanford Streaks

• Junior catcher Alex Dunlap has reached base in his first nine games—that’s the longest on-base streak of the season for a Stanford player.
• Junior shortstop Tommy Edman has played in 100 straight games (started 97 in a row).
• Sophomores Bryce Carter & Quinn Brodey enter the series on four-game hitting streaks.

Closing the Door

• Stanford’s bullpen has an ERA of 0.64
• The Cardinal pen has not allowed an extra base hit and opponents are hitting just .152.
• The reserves also have 44 strikeouts and have allowed just 18 walks and 22 hits.
• Colton Hock, Tyler Thorne and Chris Viall have not surrendered an ER in 29.2 innings.
• Stanford is 6-0 when leading after six innings this season.

Pac-12 Pitchers of the Week

• Stanford won the first two Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week awards this season.
• Colton Hock earned the award on March 1 after throwing 5.2 scoreless innings in relief in the longest recorded shut out in the program’s history (since 1959)—Stanford won at #23 Texas, 1-0 in 12 innings, on Feb. 25. Hock finished with a career-high eight strikeouts and allowed just three hits.
• Tristan Beck earned the conference honor in the first week—he was the first Stanford hurler to win the award since 2013 MLB first overall pick Mark Appel in May of 2013.
• Beck became the second Stanford freshman to start Opening Day since Mike Mussina in 1988 (teammate Cal Quantrill was the other in 2014).

2016 Schedule

 54 regular season games, 30 at Klein Field.
 More than half of the schedule (30/55, 54.5%) is against 2015 tournament teams: Cal (5), Texas (4), Cal St. Fullerton (3), UCLA (3), USC (3), Oregon (3), Oregon State (3), Arizona State (3), Vanderbilt (3).
 Though the Top 25 rankings vary, each has included at least 20+ games for Stanford against Top 25 opponents.
 11-day break from March 7-17 for finals.
 Longest homestand is seven games and 20 days long (March 1-20).
 Longest road swing is four games (four times).
 First eight games are in 10 days.

Last Time Out

• Stanford earned a split with No. 2 Vanderbilt in an impromptu doubleheader at Sunken Diamond on March 3, but ultimately lost the series with a 5-2 defeat in the rubber match.
• Stanford won the doubleheader opener, 4-1, but dropped the nightcap by the same score.
• In Game 1, freshman Tristan Beck and sophomore Colton Hock—the first two Pac-12 Pitchers of the week—combined to shut down No. 2 Vanderbilt. The duo held the highest scoring team in the nation to one just run and six hits. Stanford pushed across a run in each of the first three innings and added one in the seventh—more than enough for Beck & Hock.
• It marked the first loss of the season for the Commodores.
• In Game 2, another good outing from another Stanford freshman hurler was not enough to pull off the sweep. Kris Bubic pitched five strong innings and allowed just two earned runs, but the Cardinal was held to just two hits and a Jonny Locher RBI sacrifice fly.
• Vanderbilt led the final game of the series, 5-0, at the midway point. Chris Castellanos threw 4.1 scoreless innings in relief, but Stanford could not catch up.

Up Next

• Stanford plays at home for all but two mid-week games between March 1-April 5.
• Following Monday’s matinee at UC Davis, the Cardinal open Pac-12 play against Washington State at Sunken Diamond, March 24-26.
• Stanford’s next overnight trip will be at UCLA, April 7-9 (last was Feb. 25-28 at Texas).